The Democratic Party of Korea on Thursday appointed Rep. Seo Young-kyo, Rep. Kwon Chil-seung, and Rep. So Byeong-hun as new chairs of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the Public Administration and Security Committee, and the Health and Welfare Committee, respectively. The positions became vacant after Reps. Choo Mi-ae, Shin Jeong-hun, and Park Joo-min resigned to run in the June 3 local elections.
The party had originally planned to replace four standing committee chairs. However, Rep. Ahn Ho-young, chair of the Climate, Energy, Environment, and Labor Committee, decided not to run for North Jeolla Province governor, keeping the current arrangement in place.
Kim Hyun-jung, the Democratic Party's floor spokesperson, announced the new appointments at the National Assembly press center. "There are many bills to process, including a supplementary budget and livelihood legislation, so we are electing new chairs even though only two months remain," Kim said. "The second-half standing committee chairs will be appointed by the new floor leader to be elected in May, so the chairs appointed this time will serve only a two-month term."
Kim added, "In the past, it was customary to exclude those who had served as ministers or chaired other standing committees from consideration, but this time we did not follow that convention and selected from within each committee's current membership."
The plenary session on Thursday is also expected to take up the election of the four standing committee chairs along with some 60 bills. The agenda focuses on legislation agreed upon by both the ruling and opposition parties, including an exchange rate stabilization bill and a bill designating Labor Day as a public holiday.